Terry Ryan finding many faults in Twins' play

Twins General Manager Terry Ryan couldn't have expected his team to start so poorly with high expectations coming off last season and the team's solid play in spring training. But they now have the worst opening record in club history at 0-8 after Wednesday night's 3-0 loss to the White Sox.

Asked for his assessment, Ryan said: "We have not played well, I think that's very evident. We had a couple chances to win games in Baltimore and we didn't get it done, so it's been a bad start for us, exactly what we weren't anticipating. It has been a disappointing start and we talked about wanting to get off to a good start and it hasn't happened and obviously that's not the way you want to get going."

While the team has struggled in nearly every area, Ryan steered blame away from the defense and pitching and looked more at the offense where only Joe Mauer (.393) and Eduardo Escobar (.367) are the only players hitting above .200.

"The first four games we played pretty good defense," Ryan said. "That hasn't been our problem for the most part. Some of the offensive side of the game, we're striking out way too much, I think that's one of the big concerns that I have right now, we're just swinging through too many hittable pitches and we're not putting together quality at-bats. We have to get going. Starting pitching for the most part has given us a chance. Mainly it has been the lack of offense."

Another disappointing part of the season has been the bullpen. The relief staff is 0-3 with a 4.21 ERA while starters are 0-5 with a 3.38 ERA. And things are only going to get tougher with closer Glen Perkins heading to the disabled list.

"I think you're right about [the relievers], we had a couple of games we could have put away in the eighth, and it has mostly been because of location," Ryan said. "The pitches were up in the zone. The other day against the Orioles we had a chance and Trevor May had a tough outing and [Kevin] Jepsen had a tough one, as well. We have to get those guys going because they certainly have the ability of helping us."

Twins hitters have 66 hits and 65 strikeouts after getting four hits while striking out nine times Wednesday. How does Ryan see that getting fixed?

Still it hasn't all been terrible in Ryan's eyes, and he sees bright spots in the hitting of Mauer, which was a big question mark coming into the season, and the defensive play of his catchers.

"Yeah [Mauer] is getting off to a nice start, a couple guys have gotten off to a nice start," Ryan said. "Escobar … he has been playing well, Mauer is taking good at-bats, it looks like [Brian] Dozier is starting to get going, finally. [Kurt] Suzuki and [John Ryan] Murphy have both done a decent job behind the plate. It's not all dismal.

"We've had some things take place here, some of the starters like [Phil] Hughes and [Ervin] Santana have pitched pretty well. But I would say Joe looks like he's off to one of those starts that gives you hope that he's going to put together a good year."

The Twins started 1-6 last season before starting to really win in April and May, but they are going to need to turn it around fast or this season could be lost before it even really begins.

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